PING Introduces New G400 Family Of Clubs

One major tenant of PING Golf is to never bring out a product that is not demonstrably better than what they are currently selling.

Their design team must have VERY busy of late as today the company officially revealed a G400 Series of products that includes irons, hybrids, fairway woods, drivers, and a category they call crossover.

The details seem subtle but the changes look purposeful.

G400 Driver

“The G400 driver is a prime example of how our engineering team looks at every single detail of a club to ensure we are optimizing each design variable so golfers can improve performance,” said John A. Solheim, PING Chairman & CEO. “In this case, we’ve gone slightly smaller in volume (445cc) to improve aerodynamics for faster clubhead speeds while actually raising the MOI higher than any previous PING driver. We also employed a thinner, forged face to deliver increased ball speeds. This commitment to performance enabled impressive distance gains and tighter dispersion, the ultimate driving combination. We’ve also engineered an incredibly pleasing sound in the driver through computer simulation that will turn heads on the tee box when golfers get it in their hands. It even has a shaft that changes colour at address to improve the player’s focus.”

In just a few weeks of having the G400 driver available on Tour, PING says the conversaion rate for their staff players to the new equipemnt has ben reapid with players like Lee Westwood, Tyrrell Hatton, David Lingmerth, Daniel Summerhays, and Canada’s own Mackenzie Hughes, among many others, putting the driver into play.

“We’ve never seen faster conversion to a new product than we did at last month’s U.S. Open with 13 drivers in play the first week it was available,” Solheim added. “The players immediately loved the look of the driver and became enamoured with the powerful sound and feel. At the end of the week, the statistics proved that both the longest and most accurate players off the tee at the U.S. Open relied on a G400 driver.”

PING is making claims of ball speed gains of nearly 2 mph in the driver, giving credit to the use of a new forging and heat-treatment process in the face that allows for more flex and feel enhancement. The thinner and lighter face also allows for redistribution of weight to push up the M.O.I.. That allows for the smaller head size while still having plenty of forgiveness. In fact, PING claims they have achieved over 9,000 gram cm2 for the first time.

“We pay very close attention to the dispersion data when we analyze and compare product results,” said John K. Solheim, PING President. “Dispersion is an overall performance measurement that reveals just how consistent your distance and accuracy results will be on the golf course. We encourage all golfers to get fit and look closely at their dispersion, not just their one best shot on a launch monitor. We know they’ll be much more satisfied over the long term. They’ll not only hit it farther more consistently, they’ll find the fairway more often and their scores will go down.”

Three head options are available to match a G400 driver to a golfer’s desired ball flight. The standard version is engineered to fit most golfers. The SFT (Straight Flight) is designed to correct a left-to-right ball flight (for right-handed golfers) and features heel-side tungsten weighting and a lighter swing weight to help square the face. The LST (Low Spin) version positions the tungsten weight closer to the face to reduce spin approximately 300 rpm for a stronger ball flight.

G400 Irons

“The G400 iron delivers phenomenal performance,” said John K. Solheim. “We like to call it our ‘game enjoyment’ iron because it’s so much fun to play. It provides tour-level performance while being very easy to hit and extremely forgiving with an amazing feel. Some golfers are seeing distance improvements as much as 15 yards, yet it is launching much higher and landing softer to give them more control. One of our tour players said it best during testing: ‘This G400 7-iron has turned into my 6-iron but in an 8-iron window.’ He got it exactly right. Golfers can expect one less club to the green with the height of two less clubs. That’s a powerful combination.”

Those are big claims for the company but certainly an attractive result if it has been achieved (we have yet to test the product).

More face flex is also a trait in these new irons, thanks to a heat-treatment process that created what the company calls “Hyper 17-4 stainless steel”. They claim the material is 40% stronger than traditional 17-4 stainless steel and allows for a thinner face and 18% more face flexing.

A is previous PING irons a composite back-cavity badge made of aluminum and elastomer improves feel at impact and also makes the sound more dense. They are finished in “Hydropearl Chrome” for an attractive look and to help disperse water from the face for improved friction.

G400 Fairways & Hybrids

C300 maraging steel is the key to the new faces in the G400 Fairways and Hybrids. The extra strong steel delivers a crisp feel and high ball speeds.

“Our main goal in the G400 fairway woods and hybrids was to introduce significant distance gains while maintaining other performance benefits such as forgiveness and the ability to launch the ball easily,” said John A. Solheim. “With maraging steel, we have a material that allows us to go extremely thin with the face to give us the faster ball-speed gains we’re seeking for more distance and higher launch. The results have been amazing as we’re seeing face flexing equal to the thickness of the face.”

The G400 fairway introduces new fitting options for the company with the addition of a 9-wood and three fairway options in the SFT (Straight Flight) line – a 3,5, and a 7 wood. The Stretch 3-wood carries over for golfers seeking a lower lofted three wood.

A notable addition to the G400 Hybrids is a centre of gravity pushed toward the toe in the 2 and 3 hybrids – helping eliminate gear effect draw bias. The higher lofted models have the CG pushed back more for help launching the ball higher.

G400 Crossover

The Crossover was a wildly successful niche club in the first iteration and should continue on that path with the latest enhancements. They include a maraging steel face, a twenty-gram toe weight added, a thinner sole and a Hydropearl Chrome finish.

The popular Golf Pride Tour Velvet grip (irons, hybrids and crossovers) and Tour Velvet 360 (driver and fairway woods) are the stock grips on the G400 Series and are offered in six color-coded sizes (Blue -1/16″, Red -1/32″, Aqua -1/64″, White std., Gold +1/32″, Orange +1/16″) to fit golfers’ hand sizes. The Tour Velvet Cord is available in standard and +1/32″ sizes for an upcharge.

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